Carolyn McKanders and Jen Orton

Adaptive Schools not only explores what makes teams effective, but how to develop skills as facilitators and informed group members in informal and formal settings, in small and large groups. It takes participants beyond the idea of professional learning communities to the actual implementation, describing specific ways to weave the collaborative fabric of a faculty, develop group member skills, and acquire the principles and understandings to engage in a continuous cycle of team and individual improvement. Adaptive Schools is the “how” of professional learning communities: how to behave in groups, how to lead them, and how to facilitate them for improved leading, teaching, and learning.

In the four-day Adaptive Schools Foundation Seminar, participants will develop:

• An increased capacity to initiate, develop and sustain high-functioning groups

• New lenses for diagnosing the stages and phases of group development

• An expanded repertoire of practical facilitation tools

• Understanding of when and how to engage groups in dialogue and discussion, the limitations, forms, and values of each

• Skills to move groups beyond consensus to a common focus

• Ways to value and use dissension, argument, and conflict

• Strategies for keeping group members on track, on topic, energized and resourceful

Oakland Schools

July 21, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

July 22, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

August 12, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

August 13, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

Cost $150 for in-county employees

Adaptive Schools not only explores what makes teams effective, but how to develop skills as facilitators and informed group members in informal and formal settings, in small and large groups. It takes participants beyond the idea of professional learning communities to the actual implementation, describing specific ways to weave the collaborative fabric of a faculty, develop group member skills, and acquire the principles and understandings to engage in a continuous cycle of team and individual improvement. Adaptive Schools is the “how” of professional learning communities: how to behave in groups, how to lead them, and how to facilitate them for improved leading, teaching, and learning.

In the four-day Adaptive Schools Foundation Seminar, participants will develop:

• An increased capacity to initiate, develop and sustain high-functioning groups

• New lenses for diagnosing the stages and phases of group development

• An expanded repertoire of practical facilitation tools

• Understanding of when and how to engage groups in dialogue and discussion, the limitations, forms, and values of each

• Skills to move groups beyond consensus to a common focus

• Ways to value and use dissension, argument, and conflict

• Strategies for keeping group members on track, on topic, energized and resourceful

Oakland Schools

September 22, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

September 23, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

October 6, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

October 7, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

Cost $150 for in-county employees

Adaptive Schools not only explores what makes teams effective, but how to develop skills as facilitators and informed group members in informal and formal settings, in small and large groups. It takes participants beyond the idea of professional learning communities to the actual implementation, describing specific ways to weave the collaborative fabric of a faculty, develop group member skills, and acquire the principles and understandings to engage in a continuous cycle of team and individual improvement. Adaptive Schools is the “how” of professional learning communities: how to behave in groups, how to lead them, and how to facilitate them for improved leading, teaching, and learning.

In the four-day Adaptive Schools Foundation Seminar, participants will develop:

• An increased capacity to initiate, develop and sustain high-functioning groups

• New lenses for diagnosing the stages and phases of group development

• An expanded repertoire of practical facilitation tools

• Understanding of when and how to engage groups in dialogue and discussion, the limitations, forms, and values of each

• Skills to move groups beyond consensus to a common focus

• Ways to value and use dissension, argument, and conflict

• Strategies for keeping group members on track, on topic, energized and resourceful

Oakland Schools

October 21, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

October 22, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

November 17, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

November 18, 2026, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

Cost $150 for in-county employees